That title is certainly not to be confused with MoveOn.org. This isn’t about politics but rather family and home. After almost forty years of living in the same home the child bride and I moved in the last month or so. You’ve no doubt heard that a move is one of the more difficult events in life to absorb and endure. Of course age and time in location make a huge difference. When we were young and more or less carefree we moved several times as is common with the youth. When we were first married we moved into our one bedroom apartment near Stephens Park golf course and then moved within two years to another apartment that had two bedrooms so I would have one for my studies during law school. After that in my last year of law school we moved when the bride was pregnant with our first child.

We were looking for a house because we anticipated my graduation and real employment as an attorney in short order. Due to the impending birth and graduation we had to delay the actual home purchase a few months and so everything went into storage and we lived out of our suitcases for a while. First for two months with my in-laws and then the last month before my daugout ohter’s birth with my folks. Indeed we were there when she was born. Not fun living out of the suitcases. Then we immediately moved into our new house in Garland but that was followed almost immediately with my firing for asking for a 50 cent an hour raise.

So we packed up and moved again to Santa Fe as that was the only place I could find a job quickly and I needed one quickly; there were three mouths to feed. We moved, I took the bar exam and picked out our rent house all in one week and spent two of those days at the hospital with our daughter who had dehydrated terribly. After six months in the provinces we moved back to civilization in Dallas and into another house in Garland. Whew, we got to stay there for about two and half years and then moved to a really nice place that my Dad built for us. Cost 21,000 which seemed huge at the time. Stayed there for about three years until the last move to University Park where we remained until this spring.

All those early moves you note were when we were in our 20’s and young, healthy and full of ambition. The moves were tiring but each felt like we were moving up and doing better for our family. Those moves were merely tiring physically but there wasn’t any deep emotional bond to those locations.

By the time we got to University Park we had five of the kiddos and then the last was born there. That is the home they think of when they recall their childhood and it is where we have the memories of birthdays, Christmases and first days of school and neighborhood activities, our church life and all those thousands of sports events we attended. That is where the kids all had their first crushes on someone and where we endured the lumps of life and also were blessed with the many joys a large rambunctious family brings. I could drive home from work without even thinking about the route; it was ingrained in my brain. That house was far more than shelter it was a hive of memories and emotions for both of us. During forty years you can accumulate a lot of stuff. Some is just truly junk but you have a memory associated with it and some came from family now in heaven and you can’t trash them.

The current move was very hard physically because there was so much to lift, pack, tote and re-position. The hard part was the internal feeling of abandoning an old friend and finally having to make those choices about what had to be tossed even after you had given away as much as you could endure. All those tossed items had been important at one time or another for an event or emotion associated with it or you wouldn’t have kept them in the first place. I had the feeling of running out on a duty owed to that house because it had been so good to my family for decades. It will be razed to make way for a new house.

So now it is time to begin making new memories and attachments. We’re in a nice neighborhood. Everything in much newer here and for the most part everything works and I don’t have to constantly fix everything. We are very fortunate that we are within driving distance to the kids still living in the area. The yard will be nice; the little lady has already worked hard putting in our her flowers and garden to add color and we’ve planted a peach tree and the Red Maple comes next week. Our loyal dog and I get to make our run/walk each morning along a creek bed and see the sights and wildlife. Now, the trick is to live long enough to build that new treasure chest of memories with family. Some of the grandchildren might remember this as their grandparents home and I sure want to insure that they are given that opportunity and more importantly that they feel love and and a sense of joy when they are here. It can never replace the old memories but if we do our part maybe it will be the reservoir of new memories, life the fresh blooms and leaves of new spring.

“When the state is corrupt then the laws are most multiplied” Tacitus, Roman orator. Ponder that as you contemplate our current Federal Registry and US Code and Statutes. olcranky.wordpress.com

One response to “Moving On”

Dad,
Thank you for that house, and the 40 years of memories, being the last born there I can tell you I have a treasure chest of memories!!! I share them all the time with my three little ones. We’ve moved four times now ourselves and have the same feeling you did about our current house as you did about Purdue. So thank you to you and mom.